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CDC Year in Review: What’s Next?

Jan 12, 2016

In a digital press kit released today, CDC reviews the most pressing public health challenges of 2015 and previews plans for 2016.

CDC has made significant strides combatting some of the biggest threats to Americans’ health, including infectious and chronic diseases. In 2015, CDC helped lead global efforts to slow Ebola transmissions in West Africa and make major progress in preventing future outbreaks. Rates of adult cigarette smoking reached an all-time low, and health care industries across the country made commitments to combat antibiotic resistance. CDC continues to lead improvements in all areas of public health, even in those where there has already been great progress.

In 2016, one CDC focus is reversing the number of deaths from infections resistant to antibiotics. At least 23,000 Americans died from these largely preventable infections in 2015. CDC also will continue to find ways to prevent deaths from prescription drug abuse – which has claimed the lives of more than 160,000 Americans over the past decade. And, because smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., CDC remains on the frontlines in the fight to help Americans quit and not start.

“CDC works to protect the health, safety and security of Americans – and 2015 was a particularly challenging – and successful – year,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Old and new threats to our health, such as Ebola, dengue, HIV, e-cigarette use among kids, foodborne illness, prescription drug overdoses, and increased drug resistance are just a few of the threats that kept us up at night – and will keep us busy in 2016.”